You may have seen recently (all over our Facebook and twitter pages!) that a new Kitty Cafe has opened in Nottingham. It is the brain child of Kate and some of the initial funding came from a kickstarter. The kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/354625846/the-kitty-cafe-help-us-bring-cat-cafes-to-nottingh) did exceptionally well and they were able to raise the money to get the whole thing off the ground. They were going to move to a premises in Hockley but at the last minute it was deemed to be unsuitable for the animals so they opted for the ex-Bairstow Eves building on Friar Lane instead.

LOCATION

I have to say that I think their new location is much better located for footfall and customers being able to check it out prior to making a booking. Hockley is the “fashionable” end of town but once the initial excitement has died down I don’t think many people venture up that end of Nottingham unless they absolutely have to. And that’s when they’ll be relying on people walking past and checking them out. It is approximately a 1 minute walk from Market Square and they have a ten year lease on the building, so they are definitely in this for the long haul!

INTERIORS

When you walk in you are held in the ‘cat lock’ doors. The internal door will not open until the outside door is closed. And vice versa. This is to help prevent any feline escapees as there are busy roads nearby which wouldn’t be good for them to stray into. You would not believe how many people are confused by these doors (EVERY SINGLE PERSON during our hour long cafe visit!) and try and open the doors despite reception indicating they need to close the other one first. It became slightly painful to watch so I think the staff are doing well to stay so patient…

The interiors are very glam. When we visited the cafe was only operating at half capacity so wasn’t very full at all. But this was good as the cats need time to acclimatise to their new surroundings. And also the staff need time to get up to speed with taking and delivering orders within the one hour window. The sofas are all very comfortable and it definitely looks very funky.

The cat areas around the cafe are plentiful. There are some raised platforms which they can walk around plus lots of places for them to climb and hide inside. When we visited the cats were quite happy just pottering about but clearly still a little nervous of people. In recent photos from this week I have seen more cats sitting on people’s laps and actively engaging, which is lovely to see.

I spoke to Kate about the kitty areas which appeared to be behind some cat-doors in the upstairs bit. She said that it goes back for two rooms behind the scenes. There is an initial room which contains their food bowls, litter trays and so on and so forth. Then there is a pod room at the back where each cat has their own bed and toys, and this is where they all go to sleep at night. I didn’t get to see these rooms but I hope that Kate might consider putting photos of them on the website for the curious minded amongst us !

I walked past yesterday and saw that they were fitting the take-out window which Kate mentioned when I spoke to her during my visit. So even if you aren’t able to get a booking you can still get the food. This is actually an excellent addition to this end of Nottingham as my office is based just down the road and there are pretty much no options for delicious take-out food within a 5 minute walk. Fothergills used to have a take-out counter but they closed it down around 2 years ago and nowhere else has taken over. I will definitely pop up when I am in the office to come and sample their take-out menus.

STAFF

There were 3 or 4 waitresses serving when we visited on a week day. There were also two front of house staff - Kate (the owner) and Elliot. I know that they are currently hiring for two reception staff so I would assume this is so Kate can take a more hand’s on role in the actual running of the cafe rather than just releasing the cat lock doors. The girls were all wearing very retro style dresses with cats on - a perfect attire for a kitty cafe! The waitresses were all very helpful and pleasant. Our order was taken with 10 minutes and served up within 25 minutes. This left us about half an hour to drink up, eat the cakes and play with the cats. You can actually see into the kitchen at the back of the kitty cafe and the chefs working away on the orders. The kitchen is completely enclosed so that cats cannot go wandering in by accident. I would imagine that they had to jump through a lot of hoops with environmental health over this one…! Kate told me her chefs are Italian and so I am looking forward to visiting when they open up their new menus!

Alongside the waitresses there is also an animal behaviourist and a zoologist within the staff. Kate was telling me that the zoologist has lived in a colony of over 100 cats and so is very experienced at spotting the subtle dynamics of the cats and their behaviour. There was some opposition from the Cats Protection League ahead of the cafe opening (they hadn’t even visited or spoken to Kate) with regards to the living conditions of the cats, but this statement has since been refuted by head office and I feel that the Kitty Cafe have done a good job of proving them wrong thus far.

FOODWe are Nottingham Cake Club and as such we are rather enthusiastic about cake. The cakes DID NOT DISAPPOINT! I was served up a slice of carrot cake the size of my head and it was exquisitely presented with a very pretty swirl of sauce. The drinks were also very good and the tea menu is approximately a mile long. It is definitely the sort of place I would nip up the road to go to when I am working in the office and just need a quiet break. When we visited they were only operating the cake and drinks menus, with a view to opening up to more food from the middle of April. The tea menu is rather large and I can imagine Lee Rosy’s got a bit nervous when Kitty Cafe was going to be based just around the corner from them in Hockley! I had a cappuccino which was very tasty and had just the right amount of foam on top. If they could just add chai lattes to the menu we may be approaching food perfection…

THE CATS

OK, so the stars of the show - the cats. There are 22 cats associated with the Kitty Cafe in various different states. There are 19 cats on premises and 3 currently awaiting checks before they join the herd. There are also 2 kittens on site, both of whom dash around at approximately 100mph. All cats have their vaccinations, flea treatments etc. And they have all been neutered / spayed. The Kitty Cafe actually operates as a cat shelter within their remit of having cats on the premises. But it isn’t as straightforward as adopting from somewhere like the RSPCA. If you would genuinely like to adopt one of their cats then you can register your interest on the day. You are then required to return a few weeks later to register it again (by which point you need to be genuinely interested if you do return) and then they carry out a home check. The whole process can take around 2-3 months, dependent on checks coming back positively. You will then be able to take your kitty home. The proviso is that you do not have to pay a fee for this BUT you will be required to send regular update photo of the kitty (or kitties if you adopt a pair who need to stay together - like Ginsy and Shelby).

The cats were very much just becoming accustomed to their new surroundings and so were a little nervous of people on the day we visited. I didn’t bother them too much and let them mostly come and see us. By the end Ginsy was sat on my Kitty Cafe companions lap having a fuss made of him! The cats did all appear to be very happy and I did see a lot of them actively engaging with visitors to the cafe. We were sat quite near to the front desk though and overheard one lady loudly complaining she expected the cats to be “more engaging with customers” - THEY ARE CATS, they do what they want !! I hope that most people do not expect the cats to “entertain” them and that really you do just go here to “experience” cats as opposed to expect them to do anything.

EXPERIENCE

The overall experience is much like sitting in the house of a crazy cat lady. A crazy cat lady with lots of nice sofas and plenty of cats. Who also makes nice cakes. To be honest this is right up my street (as I am an aspiring crazy cat lady myself…) so I was quite at home there. The surroundings are very nice and it is quite peaceful. I think once they open up to full capacity that the atmosphere will feel a bit more “lived in” (it’s an ex-office block and still retains some of this formalness, unintentionally) and less formal. I think once the cats properly settle in that it will become a bit busier too. Some of the cats did just hide away (and that’s fine) during our visit leaving one or two to work the room, but I think the cats will eventually find their balance too.

In summary it was a very pleasing way to spend an hour amongst the company of cats and I hope to return there soon. ^^~

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Since our visit it has been announced there is now an entry fee to visit the Kitty Cafe. It is £3 per person on weekdays and £5 per person on a weekend. To be honest this sort of prices it out for us as a “walk past and stop by” kind of place to visit and goes into the special occasions list. I am hoping to sign up for their Kitty Card scheme which is £36 a year and allows you to have unlimited visits. At the moment I don’t have £36 going spare though so maybe next pay day I might be able to sign up for this. It would certainly pay for itself if I just visited once a month! The fee has been brought in as a welfare charge for the cats. However, the prices on the menu were very reasonable so you could still have a visit for two for just over £20, I think.